Friday

Knowing Your Family History can Save you Money and Maybe even Your Life

How your tree of family members live or lived can hopefully give you some insight in what you might want to think about correcting in your life. Oh I realize we’ve come a long way in the medical knowledge sense then but we can learn thru the mistakes of others and the stuff that might be passing thru our predecessors' to us and still going strong.

How are your parents doing? We can learn a lot by just by looking at what they’re doing and how they seem to be holding up. For example I know this person who is in her early fifties and has numerous life threatening issues in her life.

She's Over Weight

Dabetic

High Blood Pressure

Into Depression

Highly Nervous

Hows Your Life Compare to This

Now if this was your Mother you might want to look at your life and evaluate whether any of these concerns have been transferred on to you. If that is the case then your next question should be why? In other words did you learn this behavior from your Mother and then emulate it in your life or are you predisposed in a medical sense via your genes. If you acquired this behavior by being around your Mother then stop doing that and all things will be corrected. If it’s the gene thing see your family doctor and get advise on how to proceed.

Discuss Issues with your Family Doctor

Maybe one of your parents is having cholesterol issues and is currently taking medication that corrects this problem. If that be the case maybe you should discuss this with your doctor and consider taking their medication of a better one that your doctor is suggesting to eliminate getting the problem your parent has. Or at the very least be aware of it and have yourself checked regularly and maybe also adjust your eating habits and eat more healthy food.

Avoid Fear at all Cost

Know there is a danger when reviewing family members and finding out the bad things that happened to them. And then thinking it’s going to happen to you. For example maybe cancer is claiming family members and that cancer fear is consumed by you. Know you start fearing the Grim Reaper in heading in your direction and the big C is in you future. Avoid this thinking at all cost. I’m a believer that we can by our thinking make things come to reality. My Mother always worried about loosing her memory like her mother did. She predetermined her history and it happened just like she thought it would. Don’t let my Mother be your path of thinking. Think positive and that will be your future.

Have a Positive view of Your Future

Know your family history, adjust your life accordingly and live the life you think of. I wish you well, on being well.

Thursday

Being human means that sometimes things don’t go the way you want them to and then we blame the person were dealing with. If this is done in a useful and informative way it can be very useful to all parties involved; but sometimes we take our concerns to a higher level of being really mad and that’s when we step over the line and literally destroy the important relationship with have with our care giving Doctors.

Doctors and Patients sometimes loose their ability to communicate on a compatible level of thinking

Doctors face all kinds of patients and all kinds of situations that involve mental and physical hurtings by patients. And sometimes patients and doctors loose their commitment to each other and then only hostility exists. When this happens each side sets up a wall and contact with the doctor in question becomes almost impossible. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.

Patients who put their foot in their mouth seldom get help

Joe (this isn’t his real name) was involved in a very serious car accident and ended up having an open hole in his stomach that wouldn’t seal up. Now I don’t know the reason why that cut remained open? but I did talk to Joe on numerous occassions and pretty much understand why his main care giving Doctors stopped being available to him and wouldn’t directly talk to him any more.

Couldn’t Seal the Hole in his Stomach

After Joe’s accident he was sent to a very popular university hospital and underwent numerous operations to help correct the many injuries he received during the car accident. When all was said and done Joe ended up short both legs and a half dollar size hole in his stomach. Before leaving the hospital after having his sixth operation Joe confronted all his attending doctors and threatened them with a law suit for not fixing his stomach properly and demanded it be fixed right and that he receive compensation in money and mobility. And here’s a list he presented to them demanding money and other compensation.

Joe wanted compensation

1. He wanted a new van properly equipped for his disability2. He wanted one lump sum of money (I forget the sum he wrote on the his list)3. He demanded a new motorized wheel chair and a new house built meeting his disability needs

Threatening Doctors will get you no care

At Joe's last visit at the medical hospital Joe was shouting at all his doctors and threatened them all with lawsuits and branded them all as stupid and incompetent doctors. I’m sure all the doctors working at this hospital heard about Joe thru the grapevine and avoided him at all costs not wanting to face the shoutings of a person out of control and making false statements without having other doctors to back up his charges of incompetence.

Joe Lost the Help he needed and was left to his own resources

According to Joe his University Doctors wouldn’t return his phone calls and their office personnel wouldn’t accept appointments with him until he provided a referral from another doctor. Apparently his ravings extended thru out the doctors grapevine and no one would accept him as a patient

We all have issues sometimes with our doctor and voice our concerns by talking to our attending doctor. Recently I had one of those concerns with my family doctor. I waited over two hours two see him and when I did I quietly explained my frustration with that. After some reasonable interaction my doctor suggested I be his first patient in the morning every time I see him. I do that and hardly wait any time anymore. That’s working out good for me because I’m an early riser.

Joe sought the help of a Lawyer

Joe had one conversation with an attorney but never had time to sign the papers and get the compensation he was hoping for. Two weeks after seeing the lawyer he passed away in the Emergency Room at our local hospital.

Joe’s unfounded ravings did him in and no one wanted him as a patient. The Doctors didn’t refuse him care they just declined to see him. There’s a lesson to be learned here and that’s, be kind to your doctors. Your life may depend on seeing them and that may not happen because your mouth over rides your head.

Wednesday

Hospice was created in Medieval Times and means a place of shelter for the sick on long journeys.

Today Hospice cares for people who are sick and on the last journey of their life.

Before providing care hospice teams evaluate a persons situation and determine how they may best provide service to the patient in question. There goal is to provide emotional, physical and spiritual care in the hope of making the patient pain free and comfortable as they can. Patient’s family is encouraged to participate and offer their support in ways that work for them.

Hospice Helped People that Helped Me

Hospice has helped numerous people who have made my journey in life more pleasant. Most of these people from my past chose to spend the last time on earth in their home, because that worked for them.

One Lady I met didn’t have a Choice

She was found by a friend of mine sleeping in the stairwell of his apartment house. She was homeless, had no family and looked like death warmed over. But Dick my friend who like me grew up without the joy of parents; decided to adopt her and proclaimed to all she was his Mother. I knew it wasn’t true, but many brought his story and offered him help in dealing with his Mothers medical needs.

In Time Dick needed Help and Hospice Stepped In

At first she lived with him in his two-bedroom apartment; then special needs were required and Dick moved her to the hospital in their long term care facility.

In a matter of months this adopted Mother gathered a whole new family to take care for her. These newly acquired family members probably numbered twenty of so members.

She was officially called Mom

When Dick adopted her he started right off calling her Mom and the rest of us called her Grams. I heard one of her caregivers call her that and then it became her official name.

Doctors gave her two months to Live

But time wasn’t working out for her. Her attending doctors all agreed that she at best only had two months to live and that was their optimistic observation. But living on the streets and drinking anything she could to soften the pain only aided to her failing health.

Finally even with the loving care of her new family and all the care from Hospice Volunteers she finally closed her eyes and stopped breathing.

Her Tombstone read Here lies a Good Mother

Everyone including her new son were there at the grave sight to say goodbye and many tears were shed. Dick took it hard but recovered by finding love and raising a family.

One of her new family members donated the grave sight and the rest donated to the head stone. She may have not lived a happy life but she certainly died a happier person.

Monday

Sleeping is on the top list of things that really bother us humans. We as a society have tried everything short of using a bullet to help us sleep at night. And here we are still at the beginning of trying to understand this very annoying habit we develop. As children we just hop in bed and then the sand man stops by and sleep is achieved. Apparently the sand man only works on the younger folks and avoids the elders.

My Issure is with How Long I Sleep

I generally don’t have a problem falling asleep but do have an issue with how long I sleep. Sometimes I’m up at five AM and the eyelids won't slam shut.

Alcohol & Wine aid Sleeping?

Alcohol in the form of wine and pills prescribed by my favorite doctor used to be my way of finding sleep when sleep was eluding me. But then those two choices developed side effects that were far worse then getting a full nights rest.

Alcohol is good in moderation

If I would stick strictly to the plan and have just one, one half glass of wine all things would be ok and sleep generally followed soon there after. But like all things we like I started enjoying it more then I should and too much reversed the good affects and created a bad morning to face everyday.

One Pill and sleep all night

Sounds good in theory but sucks in reality. I love the ads on tv, which slightly explain that dependency might be a problem with prolonged use. Guess what they’re not kidding about that. When I was diagnosed with prostate cancer I had to take radiation treatments and take a magical injection every three months. These two events terminated any regular sleep I tried to get at night. I told my doctor and he suggested sleeping pills and I took them fourteen days straight and all was well in sleep land till my doctor suggested I not take them all the time. I stopped and the boggy man in my brain took over and fear filled my dreams while I tried to sleep, in time it went away and so did the pills. I would rather sleep badly then endure those dreadful experiences from sleeping bill withdrawal.

Here’s the best approach to sleeping better

Forget you have a problem and go about you business and don’t give it another thought. My testing has proved to me that thinking about something that bothers you will only make it worse. It’s like lighting a fire and then decide you want to stop it. But rather then stopping it you just keep adding wood to the fire. In other words stop thinking about something and it will slowly like the fire go out and then wellness will return in the form of a good nights sleep.

Do you know what the number one reason why people hurt themselves? They fall. You’d think, as we get older we would get better at walking, that apparently isn’t realityaccording to the stats.

She wasn’t paying attention

I once opened an elevator door and a lady fell out and nearly knocked me over. She excused her behavior by saying I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing. And that is the problem in a nutshell.

Falling from your chair seldom harms you

You know when you’re sitting in a chair its ok to nap, not be aware of things and just totally ignore everything. And the worse thing that might happen is you’ll spill the soup that’s sitting in your lap. And when all is said and done no harm is done. But act that way while your walking and you’re an accident waiting to happen. And sometimes your failure to be attentive will harm others in the process.

I was fortunate I had more Grand Mothers then Most

Over the years I have been adopted by numerous well meaning Grand Mothers. You see I used to manage a high-rise facility which was primarily filled by ladies over the age of sixty-two. I enjoyed this job for almost twenty years. For most of my employment there I was single and as such numerous ladies chose to take me under their wing and that meant mainly looking out for my welfare. Oh and I forgot to mention that I not only worked there but I lived there also.

She wouldn’t sleep till I got home

One particular lady wouldn’t retire for the night till she observed my car in its proper parking location. Then and only then would she slip off to slumber land. In time with their aid I was a prime candidate for Jenny Craig’s Weight Loss Program. They were constantly leaving Goodies at my apartment door. Of course I could have avoided not eating same, but that would have been disrespectful to them and my taste buds wouldn’t allow that to happen

They Taught me how to be a Good Grand Father

I must confess their kindnesses and concern for my welfare made me feel good. I think not having Grand Parents in my childhood made me a prime candidate for having them when I was older.

A careless Step maybe your last Step and that’s avoidable by just paying attention to where you’re walking

I’m like all people I’ve had my favorite people who I have had the pleasure to know. All of these ladies that adopted me at the high-rise were on that list of people. But life gives and takes and that’s one of the sad nesses of life. Before I retired from that job I watched most of them fall, slip or step off the curb and then slowly I said good by to them. They were wonderful ladies and I lost their company because they failed to pay attention to where they were walking and that ended things for them. I miss them and will always remember their kindness to me.

Saturday

All my life I’ve heard the rules regarding eating a good healthy breakfast and guess what it doesn’t work for me.

Breakfast Activates my Taste Buds

When I eat breakfast that activates my taste buds and then I spend the rest of the day opening and closing the refrigerator door. And when the Frig Door opens so does my mouth and then by body mass increases. And you know what I’m getting sick and tired of carrying all this unnecessary weight, which I wish I could transfer to my first wife. I know that’s probably a Fraudian Slip and doesn’t speak well of me. But I’m sure she would be tickled to send her extra fat to me, that’s if she has any.

Hunger continues till Dinner Time

For the last two weeks I’ve been doing a clinical test concerning my theory about the Breakfast thing. Everyday I eat breakfast I experience hunger for the rest of the day and it doesn’t seem to subside till after I eat dinner in the evening.

Now I know this theory of mine runs amok with normal thinking on this subject but that’s the findings of my experiment and I’m standing behind my results. Give it a try for a week and see how it works out for you.

When you first get up in the Morning Eat Something

Then the next day don’t eat breakfast and go back and forth for a week or so and keep track of your eating urges. Ill bet an old pair of my favorite shoes that you’d get the same results that I did. You’ll find yourself hungrier during the day when you eat breakfast, then when you don’t.

Eat less and live longer

When the body gets too much food it converts it to fat and the more fat we contain the harder our heart has to work and the closer we come to having a short life on this earth.

You Must Eat a Good Breakfast

Someone somewhere started this requirement and eventually the rest of us just bought into the thinking and then just passed it on from one generation to another. And somewhere along the way it became the Gospel and that’s how things get started sometimes. They begin with no truth and become truths because we believe them to be so.

No Breakfast is Working Great for Me

I’m now enjoying the second day of the rest of my life not eating breakfast and guess what I’m not feeling that hungry urge anymore and I’m feeling a whole lot better. I feel less full and feel happier about my life.

Eating Breakfast isn’t a Must, at least not for me

I’m starting to question other things in my life in the hope of finding more Baloney like the Breakfast Thing.

Since I’m not being as hungry, I’m not eating as much and that means less medical expenses for me. And also Ill be saving money on my grocery bills as well.

I love getting a tan as much as the next person, but I have come to the conclusion that my mind needs the sun more then my body does.

Tanned bodies make us look and feel better

Sure having a tan does makes us feel better when we look in the mirror and of course we take pride when people notice our transformation from blandness to tan ness and that makes us feel good. And feeling good is a good thing.

But Tanning the body has a downside

And here’s the downside like everything else in life we have a human tendency to over do everything and that includes tanning. When that happens are skin sometimes develops oddities and that interferes with our wellness. It’s kind of like when one drink of alcohol makes us feel better so we take another to feel even better and end up hugging the toilet stool before the night is over. And those like myself know the folly of that experience.

The True Value of the Sun

I think I have discovered the true value of the Sun in a way that it will always help us and never hurt us. And overdosing like using too many drugs is not a problem with the sun when used properly.

It’s not the Sun Rays that are important; it’s the Light that the Sun Produces

Sitting under the umbrella and enjoying the Sun Light is a huge boost to the emotional wellness of Human Beings. If you doubt what I’m saying try sitting under the umbrella while the darkness of night is around you? I’m sure you’ll notice the difference and look forward to seeing the sun when it returns.

A Sun Meter would be Helpful

People are flocking to their Doctors to solve their physical and emotional problems that are in part being created by the failure of patients to soak in enough sunlight. It’s a shame someone doesn’t invent a sunlight meter that will act like a blood pressure device and determine the level of our sunlight. It could be like the fuel gauge in our car and buzz or blink when were low on sunlight. And then when low all we’ve have to do is look at the sunlight and regain our wellness.

An Its Free

The only thing required is to open your eyes and soak in the wellness.

I think this is one of the smartest things you can do for yourself every day of your life. Yet it seems to be one of the hardest good habits to develop. And its not because we don’t throw enough money at it because we do. Exercising clubs and programs are jumping up all over the place and each promise to lower your mass and create the sexiest body you have ever had.

Exercise wont work unless you do it

But like all endeavors they’re not going to work if you don’t do them. Hopefully someone someday will develop an exercising plan that will work while were sleeping and that will be mans greatest gifts to itself. Well who knows? I believe all things are possible that means the sleeping exercising is waiting to be discovered.

Create exercises that you like and will do

Here is one truth that I have learned thru my experience and observation. An exercise only works if you’ll do it, so pick exercises that you will do and then you’ll be on the right course.

Pick Routines Your already doing

Pick things that your doing in your life, that will produce exercise for you and yet will still serve a purpose of some sort. Like the following things could be considered an exercise of some sort.

Push mow the lawn rather then ridding the mower

Set up your ladder so you can climb up and down. Like when you trim the trees or clean the eves

Order a few yards of good black dirt. Then get two buckets and fill with dirt and carry around the yard and spread around and then rake evenly. Starting at the outer edges and working toward he center of the yard.

Shoot a Basket and then throw the basketball and then go get it and run back and hoop shoot again and repeat etc.

Hang a robe from a limb put three knots in it and climb up and down. Pretend your in boot camp

Create exercises you will do and that’s exercises that will work for you

The Simpler the Better

I’m sure you get my drift now. You don’t need fancy equipment to create an exercise routine and it wont cost you an arm and leg to have and probably wont use.

The Key is your Imagination

Use you imagination and let that be the guide that creates exercises that produce fun things that you will do.

Remember Climbing Trees?

Bring back the days of your youth when climbing trees was part of your exercise and then it wasn’t work, it was just fun.

So have fun, find your youth and save by lowering your medical expenses. That’s a plan to a happy life and wonderful rewards; like rolling on the ground with your Grand Children.

Set up clear house rules and sign a rental agreement that will specify reasons for evicting your care giver

Go with what your gut feelings are telling you when selecting a candidate

I have seen many people lose their ability to work and because of that find themselves in poor financial condition. And most of the time it had nothing to do with how they lived their life. One had a heart attack and another fell down two flights of stairs and ended up losing her ability to walk.

Most People don’t have a Fall Back Plan

They like most of us didn’t have a cushion to fall back on and because of that they had to swallow their pride and ask for help anywhere they could. Contrary to what many people think getting a helping hand doesn’t fill all the needs, needy people need. Sometimes ingenuity is required.

For many years I supervised a Senior Highrise Facility and viewed the problems that life throws at people and how they with creative thinking dealt with their issues. And sometimes having someone move in with them was one of the options they tried to use to lower the threshold of difficulty they were experiencing.

Here’s an example of what one tenant did, she had her daughter move in with her.

The tenant had a daughter who was going thru the difficulties of a painful divorce and like her Mother she needed financial help. They both came to my office and explained their situations and asked if it would be ok for both of them to live in the one apartment. I said yes even thought it was a one bedroom. The rules allowed this if the persons in question were blood relatives.

Tenant got a Care Giver and didn’t pay a Dime for it

Tenants who lived in this Public Housing Facility were required to pay thirty percent of their income after medical deductions as their rent requirement. Since her daughter was going back to school under a special program she had no real income and thus didn’t pay any rent. The rental arrangement worked out well for both of them and in time they were allowed to move to a two bedroom and thus have their own bedroom.

Creative Thinking seldom Fails to produce Positive Results

It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it. Many people think there doomed with their situation and can’t do anything about it? And that is seldom the truth. Most situations have options available to them and it just takes a little movement on your part to make things better for yourself. The only obstacle you cant over come is dying. If that isn’t your case then hope is just around the corner.

Thursday

We all experience Anxiety; allow me to share one of my Anxietys with you. My wife and I are practical people we don’t throw money at something that isn’t going to produce a positive result. So when we buy gifts we buy them for a purpose and want them to be appreciated and used by the parities we give them to. And this isn’t always an easy thing to do.

Buying Presents Creates Anxiety for me

Present Ideas?

Gift Cards

A Spa Visit

Diamonds

Gift Cards

Gift cards are less personal but are greatly appreciated by many people. Maybe the person you’re thinking loves a certain place to eat, so a gift card from there would be nicely appreciated.

A Visit to the Spa

My Wife and Daughter In Laws all love going to the spa for a body message. They say they are absolutely the greatest relaxing experience they have ever had. This spa experience lasts one hour and costs sixty bucks in our local area.

Diamonds

Diamonds are always good choices for one of those special occasions like?

Anniversary

Birthday

Valentines Day

Christmas

Sources for Free Diamonds

Parents

Grand Parents

Other Elderly family members

Maybe the setting wont work for you, but you could take the diamond or diamonds and have them placed into a different configuration to suit your occasion.

Anxiety Consumes your Wellness

But here’s the real content of this article, anxiety serves know useful purpose and should be avoided at all cost. Think about all the time you fret about having to do something? And then at the last minute you do it because you have know other choice. And if you’re like I used to be that anxiety consumed endless hours of your precious wellness and that wellness can never be recovered.

Write your Anxiety Plan on a piece of paper

Which will explain what you want to do and how you’re going to do it. Then write down the day your going to do it. And then put the plan in your wallet and don’t think about it till the day arrives for you to do it. Put the day on a calendar you look at all the time so you don’t forget about the paper.

Condensed Anxiety is better for you

And here’s what you have done with your Anxiety you condensed it down to one day and think of all the pain that process saves you?